![]() ![]() Lilli was a gold-digging sex symbol created by Reinhard Beuthein. Rather, the doll was modeled after a popular comic character from the German-language tabloid Bild. Her name was Bild-Lilli-but she wasn’t for kids. Then Handler and her family took a trip to Switzerland-and met the doll that would change their lives forever. (Today, Barbies are banned in some countries including Iran in what government officials say is an attempt to protect the public from Western influences, which they see as responsible for eroding Islamic values.) The Mattel staff told Ruth to forget it-her ideal doll would be controversial, unpopular and too hard to produce. “They were comfortable with toy guns and rockets, musical instruments and pop-up toys, but the doll Ruth described defied their imagination,” writes business historian Robin Gerber. He said no mother would want to buy her child a doll in the shape of a woman. Handler created Barbie with the intention of having a womanly 3-D doll that could be styled and dressed up like a paper doll.īut when Handler shared her idea with her husband, Elliot didn't get it. As Ruth watched her preteen daughter, Barbara, act out stories with her paper dolls, she wondered why there wasn’t a more grown-up doll for kids who had outgrown baby dolls and bedtime stories. The story of Barbie began with Ruth Handler, an American businesswoman who co-founded the toy company Mattel with her husband, Elliott. And though the risqué 1955 doll has largely been overshadowed by the success of the American toy, she plays a part in the origin story of an American icon. For the first time, midcentury kids could play with a doll that looked like a woman, not a little girl-a doll with a sassy ponytail, heavy eyeliner, a healthy dose of side-eye and a distinctly adult body.įans had no way of knowing that Barbie had an even more adult side: She was closely related to a German novelty toy.īarbie had a sister-Bild-Lilli, a racy doll marketed to men. ![]() When Barbie dolls were first introduced in 1959, little girls snatched them up in droves. ![]()
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